Political life

McGovern was first elected as a councillor for Brunswick Park in the London Borough of Southwark in 2006, later becoming the Deputy Leader of the borough council's 29-member group of Labour councillors.

McGovern made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 3 June 2010 in a debate on European Affairs.[4] She became former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's parliamentary private secretary in July 2010.[5] On 14 September 2010, she held her first adjournment debate regarding employment prospects for young people in Wirral. In November 2010. she was selected by the PLP to become a member of the International Development Select Committee.[6]

In December 2010, she introduced a private member's bill before Parliament that would amend the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 to broaden the scope of the general duty of library authorities so as to include a duty to provide related cultural facilities alongside the library service. In March 2011, she visited India as part of an International Development Select Committee delegation.[7]

In the 2013 Labour reshuffle, she was added to the Shadow International Development team.[8] In 2014, she was moved to the shadow Children and Families portfolio.[9]

In May 2015, McGovern was appointed as shadow city minister in Labour’s treasury team,[10] but did not stay on the opposition frontbench after Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader in September 2015.[11] In October 2015, McGovern was appointed as Chair of Progress, a political organisation associated with the development of New Labour.[2]

In January 2016, McGovern resigned from Labour's policy review on child poverty and combating inequality, as a protest against Progress being described by shadow Chancellor John McDonnell as having "a hard right agenda". She commented that she had been "backed into a corner". A Labour Party spokesperson stated "She is resigning from something that doesn't exist", as the initiative had not been confirmed or launched yet.[12]